Cheers: To progress on Vancouver’s waterfront. Port of Vancouver officials, who are redeveloping the Terminal 1 property in the shadow of the Interstate 5 Bridge, announced this week that a Marriott AC Hotel will be built on the site. The boutique-style hotel will take the place of the former Red Lion at the Quay as Vancouver undergoes a transformation.
Just upriver from the Columbia Waterfront project being built by Gramor Development, the hotel will be another plus for a burgeoning area. For far too long, meaning forever, Vancouver’s Columbia River waterfront has represented the city’s untapped potential. With projects now on the drawing board, Vancouver is beginning to take shape as a city positioned to thrive economically and culturally in the coming decades.
Jeers: To the Clark County Jail. Michael Diontae Johnson, a 30-year-old convict serving a 24-year sentence in Arizona for kidnapping and aggravated assault, managed to escape in downtown Vancouver by swapping identities with another inmate. Johnson, who had been brought to town to face local charges of domestic violence, posed as an inmate who was scheduled to be released and was let go.
Jail officials said the release came about six weeks before the county implements a biometric-screening process that would have prevented it. But saying this won’t happen in the future does not mitigate the danger to the public or the embarrassment to local corrections. A full investigation must be conducted and must provide citizens with answers about exactly what went wrong.
Cheers: To college graduates. Washington State University Vancouver, Southwest Washington’s only four-year university, held graduation services last week, unleashing a newly minted crop of college graduates upon the world. A total of 844 bachelor’s degrees, 102 master’s, and 29 doctorates were conferred in a ceremony that reiterates the importance of the university to Clark County.
For more than a quarter-century now, WSUV has filled what long was a void in the region. An educated workforce is essential to the economy of a region, and the university’s presence helps keep some of the area’s best and brightest students from leaving the area — often never to return. Congratulations are in order to all those who earned degrees.
Jeers: To bird-nappers. A fundraising effort for the Heritage High School band ran into some trouble when two dozen purple flamingos flew the coop. Pranksters can pay to have the birds surreptitiously placed on the lawn of an unsuspecting homeowner with a sign telling them, “You’ve been flocked!” The “victim” can then contribute to the cause or have somebody else get flocked.
But after a recent flocking, the birds went missing, reportedly picked up by people not affiliated with the Heritage High band. Hopefully, they will turn up and the good-natured pranks can continue. But if some curmudgeon has absconded with the flamingos out of spite, well, that’s just bird-brained.
Cheers: To Fort Vancouver. Vancouver’s namesake landmark is getting a makeover, with the signature pickets that form the walls surrounding the fort being replaced. A total of 2,461 18-foot-long pickets have stood guard for decades, starting with construction of the north wall in 1966. They are buried 4-feet deep, resulting in a 14-foot wall around the former garrison.
The fence surrounding Fort Vancouver long has been synonymous with the city. Its image has been depicted on numerous logos over the years, and it is visible to thousands of motorists on Highway 14 each day. The real treasures can be found inside in reconstructed buildings the evoke life of the 1800s, but it is the pickets that are immediately identifiable with Fort Vancouver.
